Exploring Global Soundscapes with Karen Power: Arctic Ice, Namibian Bats & Inclusive Music-Making

Karen Power is an Irish composer who uses environmental sounds in her intriguing work. She is a master field recordist who has recorded sounds in some of the worlds most isolated and challenging locations including The Arctic, Amazon, and Namib Desert. You'll hear clips of her work including The Bats of Namibia, Frogs of Angor Wat, fascinating bog sounds and arctic ice sounds in collaborations with the Quiet Music Ensemble and many brilliant collaboraters on her project human nature. She’s also shared with us a raw field recording from a double cicada brood emergence. Karen and I also talked about her projects working to explore listeneing, composing and improvising with young children and inclusive music making with people living with disabiliities. You can also watch this on my YouTube channel; I’ve also linked the transcript. Episode linkIt’s a joy to bring these inspiring episodes to you every week, and I do all the many jobs of research, production and publicity. Ko-fi support pagePodcast merchNewsletter Karen Power website human nature albumwe return to groundOther episodes: Lawrence English Ceara ConwayJesse Stewart Philip Griffin Verna Gillis Ellen Waterman(00:00) Intro (02:22) field recording (11:44) recording bats, human nature album with clip of Bats of Namibia (16:30) different kinds of scores to communicate with the musicians (21:32) we return to ground album with the Quiet Music Ensemble (23:47) clip of Instruments of Ice (25:37) Sonic Pollinators with clip (27:27) we return to ground with clip (33:51) other linked episodes you’ll like (34:42) collaboration with Loré Lixenburg Language Land Sea (41:51) Thomas Buckner, Frogs of Angkor Wat with clip (43:30)Pauline Oliveros, Sirens of New York with clip (47:55) Natural Creators Program for young children (53:45) inclusive ensembles for adults living with disabilities (58:50) Blackbirds, Jessical Cottis (01:01:31) women composers problems with equity (01:06:50) cicadas